Clemson Football: Predicting what a 10-game ACC schedule would look like
Predicting what a 10-game ACC schedule could look like for Clemson football
The 2020 Clemson football season isn’t going to go as scheduled.
While the Tigers are currently scheduled to take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Thursday, Sept. 3 in Atlanta, there are multiple reports that are saying the ACC is planning to move back the start of its 2020 season.
That being said, Clemson football fans shouldn’t have to wait too long for the return of College Football.
The reported ‘favored proposal‘ for the conference is to play 10 in-conference games and allow for one out-of-conference game, that would be in partnership likely with the SEC and Big 12. In that proposal, Notre Dame would join the conference and divisions would be done away with. The conference would then select the top two teams to compete in the ACC Championship game, and according to reports from David Teel, the Fighting Irish are expected to be eligible for that selection process.
If the proposal is approved- and it’s certainly expected to be- the season would still be planned to start in September, though the conference is currently discussing what the opening date would be (Sept. 12, 19 and 26 are the dates being discussed).
So, what would a 2020 Clemson football schedule look like under this new proposal?
Keep in mind this is just our prediction and not an official schedule. All signs point to Clemson keeping the game against Notre Dame and the Tigers would obviously play South Carolina as their non-conference match-up.
Here’s a look at what a schedule could look like, incorporating geographic regions in to play to keep the Tigers- and their conference opponents- from traveling as much as possible.
- @ Georgia Tech
- vs. Louisville
- vs. Virginia
- @ Florida State
- vs. UNC
- @ Duke
- vs. NC State
- vs. Miami
- @ Notre Dame
- @ Wake Forest
- vs. South Carolina
In this scenario, Clemson’s farthest trip would be to Notre Dame and the Tigers would play all the teams from North Carolina, as well as both Florida teams.
For the ACC to play its conference title game on time (December 4th), they would need to start September 12. That would allow each team to play all 11 games and have a bye week. If they didn’t start until September 19, they wouldn’t have a bye week built in to the season if they were going to play 11 games. A September 26 start would mean the conference would need to delay its title game to get all 11 games played.
Next. 3 options to play emergency QB for the Tigers. dark
This would be an interesting Clemson football schedule, no doubt, and it will be intriguing to see what the ACC ends up deciding when it’s all said and done.